Julian4

I find the question about the usefulness of the programming languages not very informative. When all you do is Arduino then pretty much the only thing useful would be whatever the Arduino IDE uses so the results (for that context) are 100% biased. When I answered this question originally I did it taking into account what languages I thought would be more useful IN GENERAL and in the broader sense. Of course someone using a Raspberry Pi will most likely choose Python, Bash, or maybe even Node.js or PHP. I think this question would be more relevant phrased like so “If you had the CHOICE, which language would you use, etc, etc”.

I would much prefer to have a simple schematic and small Arduino sketch than a video. In fact, I don’t think I would need the explanation for how it works (as those take a lot of time to write and I can usually Google it) but a schematic and some code to me is the difference between being able to use the product or not. I do understand that these videos answer the question “What is this?” rather than “How do I use it?”, but still… if you already made the video then you already have the code and writing a schematic for simple stuff like this only takes 5 minutes.

Tony, then datasheet only shows the footprint for the 3-pin version and I have the 2-pin. By any chance do you know if the space from the pin to the plastic edge is the same on both versions? That’s the only measurement I need.

Mind you that if you want to use I2C with this on a breadboard you won’t be able to since the SCL and SDA pins are perpendicular to the VCC and GND pins. This makes them “share” the same rail on the breadboard. I understand that this makes daisy chaining is easier but I wish they hadn’t designed it like this.

BEWARE: The pins used in the Adafruit library are NOT the same as the ones used in the Hookup Guide. In particular pay attention to the clock and latch pins.

This is extremely bright (will hurt your eyes!). One thing that helped me while developing was placing a thick paper napkin over the panel like a diffuser. This not only lowers the brightness a lot but also makes it diffuse enough so that you don’t see the pixels.

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